the Airborne Toxic Event

Songwriter Mikel Jollett is of a breed that counts at least as many literary references as musical. That certainly accounts for his band's Scrabble-worthy name, the Airborne Toxic Event (from Don DeLillo's apocalyptic treatise "White Noise").

But how is it the Los Angeles quintet arrived at a sound so exuberant that the band's fellow art-schoolers want to dance through their MFA projects?

"A year and a half ago, I was trying to finish a novel, and I was alone in a room constantly," says Jollett, a former music journalist (including some freelance work for The Times). "My mom had just been diagnosed with cancer, and I had just been diagnosed with a congenital skin disease, though it was the kind that only attacks your vanity.

"I quit smoking, spent a month walking around in a daze. It was like the moment in my life I realized I was going to die."

What began as cathartic songwriting gained momentum after Jollett, 32, met drummer Daren Taylor and "we locked ourselves in a warehouse in downtown L.A. for four months," Jollett says. Slowly, the pair surrounded themselves with pedigreed musicians — jazz bassist Noah Harmon, keyboardist Steven Chen and violist Anna Bulbrook. They emerged with a batch of nouveau-wave songs that are equal parts Modest Mouse, the Smiths and scholarly journal.

With only about 10 shows and a self-released EP behind them, ATE has turned heads — Rolling Stone tabbed the band one of the 25 best bands on MySpace. Their headlining show Friday night at the Echo is expected to attract a cadre of label scouts.

"This has all happened pretty fast," Jollett says. "I just know the first time we were in a room together, there was an energy — we could feel it."

||| The Airborne Toxic Event performs Friday night at the Echo.

- The LA Times

That sound you heard Friday night in Echo Park was a band breaking out. The Airborne Toxic Event, folks. Yes, it sounds like the answer to an extra-credit question on your middle school science final, and you probably have had to read a lot of books to understand all its nuances. But in front of a crowd packed with fans from a generous guest list, the Event was just that, poetry you could dance to.

Made you want to run back and pay the cover charge. Made you want to shell out a fiver for the band's self-released three-song EP, though they were gone by the end of the night. Made you want to move, and embrace, and embrace life, and maybe even embrace one of those bacon-wrapped hot dogs you find on Sunset Boulevard after a show. Alas, there was not a vendor in sight.

Such euphoria was brought to you by singer-songwriter Mikel Jollett, whose tales of groovy mopery and pent-up anger lead you to believe he has stared down some of life's tougher questions. His music is obviously derived from the Crown Prince of the Bummed Out -- who, coincidentally, was playing to a packed house a few miles away -- but substitutes an air of art-house detachment for Morrissey's drama-queen theatrics. Jollett's lyrics will become evident as as the Event releases more music, but suffice to say they covered ground ranging from relationships gone sour to Middle East incursions gone sour.

His Cal Arts-heavy five-piece (which grew to six on a couple of songs with the addition of a horn player) was nothing short of amazing, considering the band is four months old and this was its 11th show. You don't see a bassist (Noah Harmon) playing his electric with a bow too often, much less dueting with a violist (Anna Bulbrook). "Deliverance" for art-schoolers.

You swooned, you buffeted, you took a deep breath. You finally stopped and thought, "What's the deal with that band's name, anyway?"

- The LA Times

WHO: Absurdly rich with talent, this Los Feliz five-piece is composed of hyperliterate front man Mikel Jolet, resident spaz/drummer Daren Taylor, bassist and “tone Nazi” Noah Harmon, keyboardist/classically trained violinist Anna Bulbrook, and on guitars and keys, Steven Chen, who’s also working on his first novel.


SOUNDS LIKE... : Having earned comparisons to Modest Mouse, the Smiths and the Cure, Airborne Toxic Event delivers choruses so adhesive and memorable (as on radio favorite “Does This Mean You’re Moving On?”) that you’ll discover yourself humming them like a well-worn cassette from college. Drums demand foot-stomping participation, viola is laced between indulgent guitar hooks, and the lyrics, labored over for months and crooned dryly by Jolet, are just wry and chagrined enough to tickle your nerd bone.


WHAT: The band was born last summer as a two-piece between Jolet and Taylor, who locked themselves in a dank practice space downtown for hours on end “just drinking and dancing and screaming and practicing.” Describing their instant bond, Jolet continues, “I think it was just that we could get weird together.” They booked their first show this past October, scrambling for backup and tripping upon the other members, who instantly clicked. In a few short months, they’ve played CMJ, become local radio darlings and have secured the March residency slot at the Echo.


SOMETHING ABOUT THAT VOICE: Jolet’s baritone could compete with some of the best in Britpop, but a discerning ear may recognize the singer’s speaking voice from occasional contributions as an essayist on NPR.


IN THE AIR: Live, the group delivers total cohesion and unflappable energy: Members bounce off one another’s backs with goofy charisma as Bulbrook wields her viola and Harmon sporadically strokes a bow against his bass strings. And yes, that is a salvaged 1969 Alfa Romeo hood they’re banging onstage.


THEM READS BOOKS: Airborne Toxic Event plucked their name from Don DeLillo’s social criticism/science fiction novel White Noise — which, though published decades ago, quite relevantly explores the bewildering effects of an increasingly media-saturated and shallow culture. Like, totally, right?


BREATHE ’EM IN: At the Echo every Monday night in March.
- The LA Weekly

A blend of Brit rock sensibility and Southern California energy, the Airborne Toxic Event is what would happen if Morrissey and Franz Ferdinand shared a summer home. This California quintet borrowed their name from an '80s novel by Don Delillo called White Noise, where a chemical plant explosion created an enormous black cloud.

"Does This Mean You're Movin' On," the first track off their three-song EP, is a burst of frantic lyrics and erratic guitar riffs that speak to the emotions from a broken relationship's aftermath. They've secured a March residency at the Echo in Los Angeles to support their EP, and with a live show that includes a viola, an organ, a trumpet, and the hood of a 1969 Alfa Romeo, you may want to check it out.

- Spin.com

We thought it was high time someone made the definitive list of MySpace bands. So we asked for your help: And you guys nominated over 1,700 bands. We nearly lost our minds listening to all the tunes, but today we’re proud to announce the top 25. Winners come from a variety of genres: You’ve got your German industrial metal (B.O.S.C.H.), your silly/cool European-style lounge music (Los Super Elegantes), your Brian Wilson-esque child prodigy (Ryan Marks Productions) and an array of pop, garage, hip-hop, dance-rock and singer-songwriter stuff. Here, in alphabetical order, are the results. Take a listen, and tell us what you think. Don’t be shy.

The Airborne Toxic Event - “Wishing Well” [listen]
- Rolling Stone.com

A talented singer can sell the most mediocre lyrics, but when you’ve got a lead who’s a major Don Delilo fan (the band’s name comes from the book White Noise), you can expect that he’s going to work a little harder at the writing than most.

Take The Airborne Toxic Event's song Wishing Well, with its spiraling refrains: And the walls spin… And you’re paper thin… From the haze of the smoke and the mescaline... The threat of your brow under unmade sheets…In your ear with the noise from darkest streets … We ran far and wide, you screamed you cried, you thought that suicide was an alibi… But you were always a mess, you were always aloof… Yeah, it’s awful, I guess, but it’s the awful truth.

Back last October, the guy who penned and sang that, Mikel Jollett, wrote to ask me to check out the band's music online and invited me to catch their show at The Echo with Tigers Can Bite You… And I ended up very glad that he did because I liked what I heard immediately – not only Wishing Well, but the also affable and smart rock songs Does This Mean You’re Moving On? and The Girls In Their Summer Dresses – and really enjoyed their live performance the next night.

Since then, The Airborne Toxic Event’s local popularity has been snowballing, most recently with a sold-out show with similarly rising stars The Deadly Syndrome at The Echo, which LA Times music columnist Kevin Bronson called “poetry you could dance to” and said “That sound you heard Friday night in Echo Park was a band breaking out.”

Their next show here in LA is on Monday, the 19th at The Viper Room… and, yeah, you ought to go.


- Radio Free Silverlake

As many LA Bloggers have told you, the Airborne Toxic Event has the Monday residency in March at the Echo. Coming off of the strength of Rolling Stone's top MySpace Bands, this band has been on a tear. They have had a great review at Kevin Bronson's Buzz Bands Blog as well as love from the usual hipster crew of tastemakers.

And rightfully so, these guys (and gal) are great. Their three song EP is way too short and the complaint that one can have is that you want more. They delivered more Monday night and they delivered it in full force.
On the surface, the band reminds me of the Arcade Fire: They have five members, one of which is an adorable girl who plays the violin. They all play each others instruments and jump around and leave everything they have on stage, but they are a very different band. They have a very diverse sound and explore their instruments in wonderful ways. How many violin/electric bass duets do you hear in indie bands these days? As you can see above, both were played with a bow.

Next Monday, the band will be playing an all acoustic set brought to you by Radio Free Silverlake. I am very curious to see what these guys can do without all their accouterments. So, I might be back to these guys again.

Here are a couple of tracks from their EP. Last time I checked, Sea Level had a handful in there.
- Floating Away